[EvilMulder]

I installed the english version. Heard Mona speak five lines and immediately uninstalled it and reinstalled it as the german version. Thank god I know some german. Seriously, how annoying can voice-acting get? Mona sounds like she's squeeking all the time.

I'm also pretty sure I had technical issues. Halfway through the demo the game 'hung' for about thirty seconds. I'm almost convinced a cutscene should have played there, as afterwards a certain door was mysteriously locked.

[tastebud]

Originally Posted by Wouter

Was looking forward to this. Played the demo for a short time (will go back to it later). First impressions:
- superb graphics (as was to be expected) and atmosphere
- the 3d characters are nicely integrated and well done
- the picture quality of the (first) cutscene was not that good though. Haven't seen the others yet.
- annoying 1 pixel white line at the edge of my screen

My biggest complaint though: whoever decided on the voice of Mona should be sacked right away and so should the person who did the voice. Seriously... I don't understand something like this.

What's there seems promising but Mona's voice might actually be the deciding factor in (not) buying this game, even at 20 euro.

i'm not sure which version you played, but the german version is not that bad, and it grew on me actually. haven't tried english. if you really have such a big issues with the voice, disable the voice and just read the text, like in the good old days of adventures. If the game otherwise appeals to you i would still support the company as they have obviosuly put a lot of work into the game and we shouldn't be dissuaded from supporting a AAA adventure by a bad voice actor.

[Dale Baldwin]

Originally Posted by EvilMulder

I'm also pretty sure I had technical issues. Halfway through the demo the game 'hung' for about thirty seconds. I'm almost convinced a cutscene should have played there, as afterwards a certain door was mysteriously locked.

You're correct - you're supposed to see a pre-rendered cutscene there.

[skurken]

Had a quick look at the demo.

Good:

Jaw-dropping 2D backgrounds. It's like playing CMI in high res and 24bit color. Beautiful!

Nicely done parallax scrolling and simple but effective weather fx.


Bad:

3D models are mediocre at best.
So-so animation.


The ugly:

That voice of Mona (english version) makes me want to jump of a cliff, sorry.


Definitely buying the full version though

[Wouter]

Originally Posted by tastebud

i'm not sure which version you played, but the german version is not that bad, and it grew on me actually. haven't tried english. if you really have such a big issues with the voice, disable the voice and just read the text, like in the good old days of adventures. If the game otherwise appeals to you i would still support the company as they have obviosuly put a lot of work into the game and we shouldn't be dissuaded from supporting a AAA adventure by a bad voice actor.

I played the english version. I wouldn't mind the french accent but the voice is so high all the time it's annoying. I just can't understand how something like this gets through quality control when nearly everyone on the forum comes to the same conclusion 1 minute after the demo is released to the public. I have huge respect for what Autumn Moon is trying to do but such things make me sad.

I will be supporting the game with my money though. Bill Tiller mentioned some weeks ago that they hired a couple of talented ex Lucasarts programmers so hopefully things will go a lot smoother for Autumn Moon in their future projects. That's something worth supporting.

[thx1138]

Biggest problem with this demo(and many other adv demos) is that starts in some random point in the game as opposed to the beginning of the game! This way player doesn't know anything about the characters, plot, setting etc. So I didn't understand what my goal is and much of the dialogue between characters is opened to my interpretation! It makes sense in new FPS where you want to see action and new graphics but in adv game story comes first and that way you can see if you want to experience full story.

[AndreaDraco83]

Originally Posted by thx1138

Biggest problem with this demo(and many other adv demos) is that starts in some random point in the game as opposed to the beginning of the game!

Totally agree. A sure way to ruin the player's feeling of immersion.

[Ascovel]

I just learned there is an "intro" movie in the demo files explaining Mona's quest for grave dirt. For some reason it doesn't activate itself in the demo, but you can view it separately with RADTools

It's in the folder:

...\A Vampyre Story Demo\game\assets\movies\bink

[Herman Toothdecay]

Well I just finished playing it and I am disappointed/relieved that everybody else found Mona's voice as annoying as I did. No offense to the voice actor...


The Good:
1. The art is wonderful, as expected.
2. Cutscenes are short and sweet.
3. The music doesn't blow you away but it does a great job of pulling you into the world. Pleasantly eerie.
4. Dialog isn't hilarious but I was kept interested. Some funny lines if you play around with the objects enough.

The Bad:
1. Mona's voice.
2. Puzzle was a bit convoluted.
3. Maybe it's just me but I don't like all of the "ideas" and hints.

I don't expect this game to be the next DOTT or MI but I believe I'll enjoy it. Many thanks to the producers for this game! I know they fought hard to get a publisher and I pre-ordered my copy a long time ago to show my appreciation .

[DustyShinigami]

Only just tried it for a few minutes, so i can't comment a lot about it yet. Yet again, another one who wasn't keen on Mona's voice. Definitely sounded too high - almost like a little girl. Couldn't detect that much of a french accent either.

No problems with the graphics, but then like i said, i've only played it for a few minutes. I, too, experienced a delay at the start and wondered if a cutscene was supposed to play.

I just hope the voice actress is different in the final version, although i very much doubt it. Shame really. That one aspect will more than likely ruin my enjoyment.

[jp-30]

Originally Posted by Dale Baldwin

You're correct - you're supposed to see a pre-rendered cutscene there.

Cutscene didn't play for me either there. I did skip the Directx install when that came up during the installation, so that may be related.

And now I'm stuck in a room with a gap under the door that I'm sure I could squeeze a bat through...

[Thello]

Bad voice acting can ruin an otherwise funny game. What a shame. I hope there's an option to turn the voice acting off.

[jp-30]

The acting's OK, it's just the pitch. And if the speech files are cracked (fsb files?) maybe someone will pitch shift them down a little?

Also, I reinstalled with the dirextx files, now the cutscenes show up and things are a bit easier to figure out.

Nice puzzle, overall!

Couldn't understand a damn word Shrowdy said though, the cutscenes could do with subtitles too.

[kostas]

Just played the demo. I have been waiting for this game ever since it was announced. Bottom verdict: I liked it. It has a good feeling for those who liked this kind of games in the past. There are some flaws that have already been mentioned.

The demo starts you are like "hey, we are gonna hear Mona's voice" and then it's like "where did that come from? ". Then I got used to it and I found it kind of cute in the end . What really bothered me was the quality of the cut-scenes, the fact that the demo starts in the middle and it even has some spoilers for crying out loud... The puzzle was fun!

Anyway as I said just the feeling of this game is enough to make everything else go away for me. I can't wait to get my hands on my copy!

[jp-30]

Yeah, it does make you miss Telltale style in-game cutscenes rather than lower res pre-rendered ones.

[D.C.]

Man, some definite solid production values here... with one voice related exception.

[kostas]

And two things I really liked:

(1) Tab button displaying all interactive spots
(2) Idea for putting large things in the inventory without carrying them around. I don't know if any other game has used this idea, but it was about time someone did something clever about this. It was a bit annoying

[Vina]

Originally Posted by tastebud

not sure what glitches you're referring to, the only glitch i noticed is that sometimes her cape clips through some objects that are supposed to be in the foreground. minor issue.

I ran into some that were more threatening. The first one was when

Spoiler:

I couldn't interact with the puddle. It was there, the tab showed it, but I couldn't click it. I started a new game and then ran into a glitch where I could walk out of the room after it was locked. FYI, the game unsurprisingly didn't let me proceed. 3rd try, the game would close after I extinguished the fire. A couple more tries, she wouldn't recognize that the fire was out so I couldn't fly through. Most of these problems were solved when I reloaded the game or retried on a new one and came back to the old one. I have no idea what's causing it.

Anyway, I agree that Mona's voice was surprisingly annoying. But I got used to it after a while and just assumed it was a character flaw. I won't judge the comedy since we saw only a snippet of it.

I definitely intend to buy this game when it comes out. I think we can all agree that the background art is beautiful, and I thought the music was very appropriate and atmospheric. It gave me the same feeling I had when I played CMI, so I have no qualms getting AVS for those factors alone. That, and I do find the story intriguing.

[Igor]

Demo impression: love it!
It really has that golden age Lucas Arts feel to it.

Though, as most have already mentioned: the voice of Mona.. uh.. i had to turn the voice volume down to 20%, to make it bearable.
3d characters looks good, just a bit low-poly to compete with such detailed backgrounds.

Other than this, it's great. While the humor is very light and a bit generic, the atmosphere and whole feel of the game really shines.
It's very, very promissing. Can't wait for the full version.

[CrimsonBlue]

Can anyone provide a faster download link for the demo? Worthplaying and Filefront are both slow as hell, especially the former. Can't find a torrent for it either.